Latest news with #ZEVmandate
The Independent
5 days ago
- Automotive
- The Independent
New car market returns to growth
The UK's new car market returned to growth in May with a 1.6% increase in registrations, figures show. Industry body the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said 150,070 new cars were registered last month, up from 147,678 in May 2024. This represented the best May performance since 2021 and was only the second month of 2025 with year-on-year growth. Registrations of pure battery electric new cars rose by 25.8% to take a market share of 21.8%, up from 17.6% a year earlier. The SMMT said this was partly a result of manufacturers offering discounts to boost sales. It noted that under the Government's zero emission vehicle (Zev) mandate, at least 28% of new cars sold by each manufacturer in the UK this year must be zero emission, which generally means pure electric. Across all manufacturers, the year-to-date figure is 20.9%. SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes said: 'A return to growth for new car registrations in May is welcome but manufacturer discounting on new products continues to underpin the market, notably for electric vehicles. 'This cannot be sustained indefinitely as it undermines the ability of companies to invest in new product development – investments which are integral to the decarbonisation of all road transport. ' Next week's spending review is the opportunity for Government to double down on its commitments to net zero by driving demand through fiscal measures that boost the market and shore up our competitiveness.'
The Guardian
29-05-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Weakening of sales rules may lead to fewer electric cars on UK roads, says climate adviser
The UK government's weakening of vehicle sales rules in April could result in fewer electric cars on British roads and higher carbon emissions, according to its official climate adviser. The Climate Change Committee (CCC) said that loopholes announced by Keir Starmer last month for the government's zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate could lead to more plug-in hybrids being sold 'at the expense of some EV sales, which would lead to a further reduction in emissions savings'. The UK brought in the ZEV mandate to force carmakers to sell more electric cars every year, or face the prospect of steep fines. However, the Labour government introduced new 'flexibilities' into the rules after the car industry lobbied heavily to argue that they were economically unsustainable. Experts had previously highlighted apparent flaws in the government's analysis. They told the Guardian they believed the flexibilities would result in much higher sales of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), which emit far more carbon than electric cars because they combine a polluting internal combustion engine with smaller batteries. T&E, a campaign group on transport and environmental issues, said the changes would mean as many as 500,000 additional PHEVs on UK roads by 2030. Heidi Alexander, the transport minister, claimed the ZEV mandate changes would have a 'negligible change to the carbon emissions'. However, the CCC highlighted that Department for Transport analysis assumed carmakers would not use greater flexibilities to sell more PHEVs – an assumption thought to be incorrect by experts. It outlined its analysis in a letter on Wednesday from Piers Forster, the CCC's interim chair, to Lilian Greenwood, a transport minister. Ben Nelmes, the chief executive of the thinktank New AutoMotive, said: 'The CCC's verdict is clear: ministerial meddling with electric car rules risks creating damaging uncertainty. Drivers will be the ones picking up the tab, waiting longer to benefit from EV savings, while net zero defeatists cheer from the sidelines.' Some people in the electric vehicle industry said they were disappointed that the CCC did not call for the government to reconsider the proposed policy changes given the possibility that they would result in higher carbon emissions. Tim Dexter, the vehicle policy manager for T&E, said: 'The CCC's letter reveals a critical weakness in the government's revised zero emissions vehicle mandate, jeopardising its climate goals and increasing costs for drivers.' Colin Walker, the head of transport for the campaign group Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, said: 'The increase in vehicle emissions could be considerable. As well as driving the uptake of more polluting and expensive PHEVs, the government's changes risk distracting the UK's car industry from making the shift to building EVs, leaving it stuck building obsolete hybrids while the world moves to EVs – a recipe for factory closures and mass redundancies.' However, the CCC said the government changes were pragmatic and minor relative to the trend of increasing EV sales – to the chagrin of some in industry. The CCC also criticised the government for failing to ban petrol and diesel van sales by 2030, instead opting for 2035. It said: 'We are disappointed that the phase-out date for vans has not also been restored to 2030.' A spokesperson for the Department for Transport said: 'Our recent changes strike a practical balance - giving manufacturers flexibility to sell plug-in hybrids until 2035, while sticking to our commitment to the 2030 phase-out of new petrol and diesel cars.' The changes 'will have a minimal impact on emissions' it said, and would protect jobs.
Daily Mail
29-05-2025
- Automotive
- Daily Mail
Used electric cars lose half their value in two years - manufacturers blamed for discounting new prices
Electric cars are losing more than half their value within two years, according to a new report. Analysis by Cox Automotive has suggested that a 24-month-old battery car sold to the trade in April on average retained just 47 per cent of its original new cost. However, two years earlier, an EV of the same age profile was - on average - holding on to 83 per cent of its new price. The dramatic acceleration in depreciation is being blamed on manufacturers who are caught in an unprecedented catch 22 scenario currently playing out in the automotive sector. With car makers being forced to increase their sales of EVs to meet Government-mandated targets, they are offering huge discounts on new models to make them more attractive to new customers in order to meet their quotas. But this is having a significant knock-on impact for residual prices, as drivers are seeing more value for money buying new rather than opting for a nearly-new second-hand EV, which has seen used prices tumble. This graphs shows the average auction sale price for EVs under 24 months old as a percentage of their original cost new, with the typical electric car retaining just 47% of its showroom price The Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate introduced to law last January requires mainstream car manufacturers to sell an increasing share of EVs every year between now and 2035. Failure to adhere to these quotas can result in significant fines of £12,000 for every car sold below the required threshold for that year. In 2024, the minimum quota was for 22 per cent of all deliveries by manufacturers to be zero-emission electric cars. However, the target jumps to 28 per cent this year, 33 per cent in 2026 and 80 per cent by 2030. Officials reported that every mainstream brand achieved last year's 22 per cent EV sales mix - though at a huge cost to car companies. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) reported that makers lost a collective £4billion in discounted prices as they tried to make electric cars appear more attractive to petrol and diesel counterparts. Mike Hawes, chief exec at the trade body, described the scale of these discounts as 'unsustainable'. Labour's decision to force EV owners to pay car tax for the first time from April has also dampened demand for new models - and triggered further manufacturer discounts. Both Vauxhall and Abarth - the performance division of Fiat - have recently reduced prices of their electric cars so that they sit below a £40,000 expensive car tax supplement being imposed on new EVs starting from next year. But Cox Automotive Europe discounts are now having a huge knock-on effect on the second-hand market, because 'nearly new' used EVs are falling in value as a direct result. Second-hand electric vehicle prices are also taking a hit from the huge acceleration in available models coming to market, with March seeing a record 69,313 new electric cars entering the road. A rapid development of battery technology is also stinging the value of quickly outdated older EVs, while the emergence of new cheaper brands - predominantly from China - is also pushing second-hand values lower. As such, a two-year-old electric car today is now holding just 53 per cent of its original price. In contrast, the average diesel car selling to trade with the same age profile is retaining 30 per cent of its new value. When second-hand EV values were at their peak in 2022 - as a result of supply constraints around the Covid-19 pandemic - a two-year-old electric car was losing only 17 per cent of its showroom price. Philip Nothard, insight director at Cox Automotive Europe, said: 'The current performance of nearly-new EVs in the used market is still much lower than we would anticipate for vehicles in this age profile. 'The heavy discounts offered on new vehicles mean that consumers can pick up a brand-new model for the same price as a nearly-new model. 'This gives consumers very little incentive to consider them, which is a real blow to a market that needs all the incentives it can get its hands on.' On the flipside, EVs between three to five years old are performing much better. At auction, these vehicles have seen only a modest price drop of 15 per cent on average in the same time period as they aren't impacted as severely by heavy manufacturer discounts and tend to attract a different driver. Last month, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer was forced to water down Britain's electric vehicle sales targets in response to Donald Trump's watershed tariff announcement. The PM's new measures included additional leniencies in the ZEV mandate in a bid to 'support car makers'. And only last week, a leaked letter from transport minister Lilian Greenwood revealed that the Government is considering dumping the expensive car supplement - widely being referred to as the 'Tesla Tax' - for new electric cars in an effort to stir up more demand for green vehicles. Nothard added: 'The used market is a crucial source of profitability for the automotive sector. 'Within increasingly volatile market conditions, the strength and consistency of used operations are crucial. 'To ensure this, more support for the used EV sector is needed to put the brakes on the rapid pace of depreciation.'
Auto Express
06-05-2025
- Automotive
- Auto Express
Electric car sales are still falling short of ZEV targets
Car registrations in the UK have fallen yet again for the sixth time in seven months, with EV sales still far away from the lofty targets still required by the ZEV Mandate following the conclusion of its review last month. Just over 120,000 new cars hit the road across the UK in April which, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), is 10.4 per cent fewer than in the same period last year. Crucially, however, although the popularity of electric cars continues to grow – the number of new examples registered last month was a modest eight per cent up on 2023, at 24,558 – market share still sits at around one in five new cars, which is eight per cent shy of what's required for 2025 by the ZEV mandate. Advertisement - Article continues below By way of explanation, the SMMT points towards the latest changes to VED (Vehicle Excise Duty) road tax in April. These saw electric cars now liable for the yearly charge of £195, as well as the hefty Expensive Car Supplement (also known as the Luxury Car Tax) of £425. Of course, it's not only EVs that were hit by the changes, because tax rises were seen across the board, notably with first-year tax rates seeing a big jump for the most polluting new vehicles. Such a wide-reaching tax increase meant many buyers brought their purchases forward in order to dodge some of the financial burden, but nevertheless the slump in sales is representative of a market full of uncertainty and lacking in support. Skip advert Advertisement - Article continues below The chief executive of the SMMT, Mike Hawes, described the latest figures as 'disappointing, but expected after March's surge.' Such a sentiment was backed up by John Cassidy, the managing director of sales at Close Brothers Ltd – one of the UK's largest car finance brokers and one of the firms caught up within the ongoing car finance scandal. 'Following a record month for electric vehicle registrations, April has proved to be something of a step back to normality in this regard,' Cassidy said. 'Numbers continue to fall well short of the zero emission vehicle mandate targets, and the Government needs to think seriously about how to incentivise uptake of electric vehicles.' Cassidy called for what he described as a 'funding boost for EV charging infrastructure', stating that '57 per cent of motor dealers believe there isn't enough time to improve the infrastructure for the ban to go ahead. Arguably, people are yet to be convinced that the 2030 target isn't unrealistic.' Hawes also called for Government action, noting that 'EV uptake is still being heavily and unsustainably subsidised by the industry, which is why a compelling package of measures from Government is essential if consumers are going to make the switch.' Auto Express has asked the Department for Transport whether it plans to introduce further measures to stimulate the market beyond what was announced at the end of the ZEV consultation, but it refused to comment, simply pointing to the changes it has already laid out. Come and join our WhatsApp channel for the latest car news and reviews... Find a car with the experts Ford Fiesta set to return? Icon could be reborn with a little help from Volkswagen Ford Fiesta set to return? Icon could be reborn with a little help from Volkswagen The Ford Fiesta could be coming back from the dead, and our exclusive image previews how it might look New Renault 4 2025 review: as good as the Renault 5 with the bonus of extra space New Renault 4 2025 review: as good as the Renault 5 with the bonus of extra space The new Renault 4 takes everything that's good about the Renault 5 and adds extra cabin and boot space New 2025 Kia PV5 van starts from a tempting £22,645 New 2025 Kia PV5 van starts from a tempting £22,645 All-new entry into the van market promises competitive pricing and comes with a range of up to 247 miles
